Sunday, September 21, 2008

1. The Economist carries an interesting story about shortage of water. We consumer more that 3000 litres of water per day. That is because today's agricultural practices wastes lot of water in irrigation.

2. The Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) has proposed an onion storage scheme. "This will prevent the usual trend between June and September, when the price per quintal goes up to Rs 1,000 from Rs 200-Rs 300", said project manager DM Sable of MSAMB.

3. Integrated farming is needed to achieve a sustainable high growth rate, said noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan at an agriculture leadership summit.

2. MS Swaminathan, one of India's best-known agricultural scientists and a Rajya Sabha member suggests that "Bihar now needs to change its short-term farm strategy and switch to short-haul cash crops that do rather well after floods. The idea is to grow crops that mature quickly — in about two months — and have a good market."

Friday, September 12, 2008

1. Business-line writes about the status of farm-insurance in our country in its editorial. According to a survey by Max New York Life and National Council for Applied Economic Research, only 19% of rural household have life insurance while only 10-15% of all farmers have crop insurance.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

1. According to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the world cotton production is likely to fall. China has reduced its acreage for cotton cultivation and US and Pakistan are also set to report lower output. India, set to produce higher output will benefit from exports. Higher MSP (Rs 3000/quintal - 2,500/quintal) will also benefit farmers.

2. Bumper potato crop has become a curse for farmers instead of helping them. The prices have dropped down to Rs 350-400/quintal

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

2. Global Industry Analysis (GIA) has come out with a research report on Agriculture (priced $1950). "The report titled "Agriculture: A Global Outlook", published by Global Industry Analysts, provides a collection of statistical anecdotes, market briefs, and concise summaries of research findings. Discussions in the report take note of burning issues consuming the world agriculture industry, such as, food security for nations, food integrity, environmental degradation, and the growing notoriety of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Also covered are evolving trends i.e. the green revolution brought about by organic farming, e-commerce penetration in agrochemical trading, and the impact of biotechnology on agriculture, among others. Punctuated with 64 data rich, information laden tables and easy to understand charts and graphs, the discussion on the global market offers exclusive coverage on Agricultural Biotechnology, Agriculture and Environmental Diagnostics, and Agrochemicals, among others. Annotated with tables that enumerate key research findings, the regional markets briefly abstracted, and summarized include the US, Canada, and Japan, among others. The report provides an indexed, easy-to-refer, fact-finder directory listing the addresses, and contact details of 415 companies worldwide."

Saturday, September 6, 2008

1. Netafim, the world’s largest provider of smart water solutions for agriculture, inaugurates its second plant in Chennai, India. "Netafim™, an Israel based Agri-Business pioneer and the world’s largest provider of smart water solutions for agriculture, has been delivering innovative solutions that increase crop yields and preserve water resources. Netafim™ is active in over 110 countries across 5 continents, employing over 2600 employees, has more than 35 subsidiaries and 13 manufacturing facilities in 11 countries."

2. Bihar floods have led to losses worth more that 150 crores. Business-standard carried this story. Worst affected are the crops like paddy and maize and also pulses, vegetables and banana.

3. India is pushing on talks involving free trade of goods, services and investments with Japan and South Korea. Parallel talks are also going on with Thailand in similar lines.

4. Conflicts surrounding Pusa rise continues. Limited exports of Pusa rice has been allowed. Although it has not been provided the new definition of basmati rice in spite of meeting the necessary requirements.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Business-standard reports that private banks are buying loan portfolios from MFIs. Its a win-win kind of situation where MFI's benefit by reducing their asset size and hence increasing CAR, while banks try to meet the priority sector lending targets.

So banks are using these kind of tricks to extend 13.5 per cent of their advances as direct agricultural loans. This does not increase the credit availability for farmers so though this scheme may be good for MFIs and banks but may not be so for farmers.

Monday, September 1, 2008

1. Organic farming is gaining some interest across farmers and consumers. We can see special sections in grocery retail chains dedicated for organic farming products. One of the companies working in this domain is Sresta, founded by an IIM alumnus. ET covers a story here.

2. Businessline carried the story about late inclusion of Pusa 1121 into new definition of basmati rice. The story also explains the economy of paddy cultivation on a per acre basis. “As it is, Pusa 1121 prices have been going down in the global market and the delay in notifying the evolved variety would be a final nail in the coffin of the growers of this variety of rice.”